Karnataka Governor not satisfied with first trial of strength of Yeddyurappa govt

Karnataka Governor not satisfied with first trial of strength of Yeddyurappa govt

In the ongoing political turn of events in Karnataka, the state Governor HR Bharadwaj has asked the Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to face trial of strength on the floor of the house again by Thursday morning. 

The Governor desired the strength of the state govt to be proved in clear numbers.

The Karnataka Chief Minister Yedyurappa announced that he will follow the Governor's directive and prove his majority.

The Chief Minister earlier said in Delhi that legal opinion will be sought in the matter of taking the second trial of strength.

The Karnataka High Court today adjourned to 18th October the hearing on a batch of petitions filed by 16 MLAs challenging their disqualification but gave them no no relief by way of stay on the Speaker's action.

While the Bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N Kumar reserved orders on the petition filed by 11 BJP MLAs in which arguments concluded, it granted time to 5 independents to amend their application in the wake of issues raised the government government.

The case will now now be heard at 1430 hours on 18th Oct.

11 disqualified BJP MLAs have contended that the action of the Speaker was violative of the procedure laid down under anti-defection law and they were not given seven days time to respond to the notice issued on October seven.

Senior Supreme Court counsel P P Rao, appearing for them, submitted that their disqualification is violative of principles of natural justice under tenth schedule of the Constitution.

The aggrieved legislators submitted that they have not attracted any provision of the anti-defection law warranting their disqualification.

They still remained elected members of BJP and they have not joined any other political party, they said.

The petitioners also contended that they only withdrew support to the BJP government led by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in the wake of allegations of corruption, nepotism it faced and on other issues related to governance.

In the case of 5 Independents, their counsel K G Raghavan submitted that BJP cannot seek their disqualification as they were not elected on that party's symbol but as Independents.

However, the counsel for the Government Satyapal Jain pointed out that these Independents have attended BJP Legislature Party meetings ever since they became ministers and even signed registers of the party meetings.

Jain also pointed out that the Independents, in their petition, held that they never joined BJP and also they never left party.

"The question of quitting does not arise, unless, they were part of the party," Jain contended at which the counsel for Independents Raghavan sought time to amend the petition.